Rose
by TFKeyes
Summary: I need help and the only one that can help me is Ichigo. The hollow girl screamed. I don't own Bleach.


Rose had wandered about the city for a long time. She was still looking for her friend but had lost track of him some time ago after the second hollow had attacked her. She had been eaten and changed into a hollow herself but she had tenuously held onto her sanity. She knew that if she could find Ichigo then she would be alright. She knew that he could see her and that he would help her. She kept feeling this hunger inside of her but she had pushed it aside in her quest to locate Ichigo. Her outward appearance had changed and she hoped that he didn't become frightened of her now that she had changed. She walked off in the general direction of his school hoping to find him once again.

The pager function of the cell phone went off notifying Rukia that there was a hollow approaching. She elbowed Ichigo sharply as he ate his lunch and held out her phone to show him what was going on. "Come on, let's go and meet it before it gets here. I don't want to be fighting during lunch with all these people around. Someone might get hurt."

"Ah, yeah." Ichigo answered her. He stuffed the remainig bit of rice into his mouth and stood up following her to a quiet place out of sight from the rest of the students. There she took out her glove and pushed him out of his body. She caught him and laid him down like he was taking a short nap and then followed the substitute soul reaper in the direction of the approaching hollow.

She caught up with him and found a very curious sight. The hollow wasn't attacking Ichigo and was actually cowering away from him. It was pleading with him to help her.

The hollow then spotted Rukia. "I know you! You're the one that saved us that day down in town from the monster! The day that Ichigo and I were running from it. Do you remember? I was the little girl."

Ichigo kept his massive zanpakutō before him in the guard position but not attacking. "Rose? Is that you?" Ichigo slowly lowered the sword and took a tentative step forward.

"Ichigo! What are you doing? She may have been a friend at one time but she's a hollow now! She has to be purified." Rukia was afraid that Rose was trying to trick Ichigo.

"I'm so sorry miss, I didn't know who to come to. I don't want anything except to make this stop. I thought that Ichigo would know how to help me. Please I just want this all to stop." Rose took her masked head in her hideously deformed hands and wept.

"Rukia, isn't there anything we can do for her?" Ichigo pleaded

"Maybe but she is going to have to do it by herself. We can't help her with this. Rose, If you want our help you are going to have to break that mask off. I know that it is going to be hard but I think that you can do it. I've seen one other hollow rip off his mask and he was able to fight the feelings of the hollow long enough to send himself to Soul Society using Ichigo's zanpakutō. It's all up to you." Rukia tried her best not to scream at Ichigo to smash her mask and went over the spells that she had at her command.

Rose grasped the mask on both sides and used her enormous strength to start prying at it. The pain was tremendous as she pulled at it and she wasn't sure that she could take it. She felt the mask start to give slightly and redoubled her efforts. The pain rose sharply as the mask was slowly ripped aside from her face. A black aura surrounded the edges of the mask as it came away from her face revealing the young girl that Rukia had saved only about a week before. Finally it flew away from her and cracked on impact with a nearby wall shattering into thousands of pieces. She looked distraught but basically the same as she had prior to being eaten with the exception of the hole in her chest where the chain of fate had dangled.

"Quick Ichigo, you have to perform the konsoh now while she is stable. That's the only way that you can save her now." Rukia wasn't sure that this was going to work but she felt that she had to at least try.

Ichigo stepped up to Rose and reversed the zanpakutō and gently tapped her on the forehead. "I hope this works Rose. Behave yourself in Soul Society. Make some friends and maybe I'll see you one day."

The shimmering pool of light formed and the half hollow girl slowly sank into it reverting to her normal body and then she smiled just before she disappeared. "Thank you Ichigo. I'll be waiting for you on the other side." The hell butterfly left the pool of light and flittered up into the sky.

"Ichigo has a girlfriend!" sang out Rukia in a teasing manner.

The fire headed teen turned a shade of red that reminded Rukia of an apple as she laughed at him.

**A/N I used the manga as a guide for this one because in the manga it looks like she got eaten. **


End file.
